The Importance Of Goal Setting Theory

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My peer is a 29-year-old Canadian, who has studied in college for 11 years, and will be graduating next year with a Bachelors of Arts in applied linguistics, and a Bachelors of Science in psychology simultaneously. My peer believes that everything can be accomplished since they hasn’t been proven wrong yet. They said they wants to graduate in 2016 with a honor cord, because they has studied in college for 11 years, and they doesn’t want to extend their graduation date. They is willing to go to a medical school or any other graduate programs after graduating from Portland State University. After that, they is tempted to be an acupuncturist or works in any other Chinese medicine related occupations. They has set up numerous academic …show more content…

However, after reviewing our interview transcripts, and considering my peer’s issue, I believe that Goal Setting Theory would be the most applicable theory for solving my peer’s problem. In 1960s, Edwin A. Locke first proposed this theory, and then this theory has been developed. Locke and Latham referred (1990) that goal specificity is positively related to subsequent performance, and many following studies also indicate that there are a high correlation between these two variables. In addition, Gollwitzer et. al. (1997) referred the importance of having a plan. He suggested that planning in advance could make goals become more attainable, as known as implementation intention. What my peer wants to do are graduating on time, getting an honor cord, going to a graduate school, and being an acupuncturist. In order to achieve these goals, my peer needs to plan more short-term goals, and take action.

Empirical …show more content…

The research by Mone and Shalley (1995) refers that under the simple task circumstance, specific goals are conductive to higher performance. Thus, my peer needs to plan more specific short-term goals in order to increase the probability of accomplishing these long-term goals. For example, if they really want to graduate one year later, then they should go to meet with their advisers for getting more understanding about the current statues of themselves; if they really want to get the honor cord when they is graduate, then they ought to make sure that they is maintaining a good grade point average, which is able to meet the required minimum threshold; if they really want to be an acupuncturist in the future, then they needs to go to a related graduate program, which can help them to gain more

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